ABSTRACT
This chapter explains how the concept of power has traditionally been understood and employed in International Relations (IR), before contrasting with less state-centric, non-sovereign conceptualisations. It argues that an understanding of power as productive and as governmentality is crucial to an appreciation of contemporary global politics, but also underlines the continued relevance of coercive power. Instead, power is also present in the ability to shape and control political agendas, thus preventing issues from entering public debate. The understanding of power as domination and coercion maps readily onto many approaches and debates in IR, and has given us a vocabulary of super powers, regional powers, middle powers, great power politics, the balance of power, etc. The author hope is that his account has navigated the challenges with sufficient subtlety and openness to inspire readers to explore the concept of power in more depth, both through the key theoretical texts and through more empirical explorations of contemporary global politics.
